Adolphe and The Red Notebook (Meridian Classic)

Constant, Benjamin

ISBN 10: 0452008212 / ISBN 13: 9780452008212

Published by Plume, 1986

About this Item

Has some shelf wear, highlighting, underlining and/or writing. Great used condition. A portion of your purchase of this book will be donated to non-profit organizations.Over 1,000,000 satisfied customers since 1997! Choose expedited shipping (if available) for much faster delivery. Delivery confirmation on all US orders.

Seller Inventory # 10719352

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Adolphe and The Red Notebook (Meridian Classic)
• Publisher: Plume
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0452008212
• ISBN 13: 9780452008212
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

This charming story paints the literary life of Paris in the nineteenth century. Sylvestre Bonnard, a retiring philologist and bachelor, upon finding the daughter of his long ago love, resolves to provide for her and supply her with a dowry. However, she already has a guardian. After a series of incidents, and learning that she is being badly treated, Bonnard is driven to abduct her. He escapes prosecution and eventually is appointed her guardian. When Jeanne, his ward, marries, he sells his treasured library to secure her dowry, guiltily withholding a few volumes, and retires to the country. Critics have split over just what is the crime referred to in the title. Is it the crime of abduction of which Bonnard is guilty, or the crime of retaining a few beloved books from auction, or is his rescue of Jeanne from mistreatment a poignant irony, making his crime one of benevolence in an inherently malignant social order? It is the reader's call.

About the Author

Benjamin Constant (1767-1830) was a French-Swiss po­litical writer and novelist. He combined a lively political career with a fertile literary output, while entertaining a series of liaisons with some of Frances most prominent women. Constant was an able parliamentarian, a cham­pion of liberalism and the author of The History of Reli­gion. Posterity, however, remembers him as the man who bared the anatomy of a destructive passion in the story of Adolphe (1816).